Effect of dietary supplementation of cinnamon oil and sodium butyrate on carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler chicken.

AIM: An in vivo experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementation of cinnamon oil (CO) and sodium butyrate on carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler chicken compared with the antibiotic supplementation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A biological experiment was carried out with 216-day-old Vencobb-400 broiler chicks randomly distributed to six experimental treatments with six replicates, each replicate containing six chicks with equal numbers of male and female chicks. The experimental diets were prepared with isocaloric and isonitrogenous basis. The experimental groups, namely control (T1), control with antibiotic (T2), control with CO at 250 mg/kg and coated sodium butyrate (CSB) either at 0.09 (T3) or 0.18% (T4), and control with CO at 500 mg/kg and CSB either at 0.09 (T5) or 0.18% (T6). The trial was carried out in deep litter pen for 35 days. The carcass characteristics such as ready to cooked yield, eviscerated weight, heart, liver, gizzard, giblet, and abdominal fat percent in slaughtered birds and meat quality properties such as pH, water-holding capacity (WHC), tyrosine, shear force, cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid, sensory characteristics, and muscle cholesterol in breast muscle samples were evaluated. RESULTS: The carcass characteristics such as ready-to-cook yield, eviscerated weight, and weight of heart, liver, gizzard, giblet, and abdominal fat as a percent of live body weight were not influenced by supplementation of CO and CSB at the levels attempted or by antibiotic supplementation in broilers. The pH, cooking loss, shear force and WHC of meat, appearance, flavor, texture, mouth coating, juiciness and overall acceptability of meat were not influenced by the supplementation of different levels of CO and CSB or by antibiotic supplementation but decreased meat cholesterol level in broilers. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the supplementation of CO and CSB in broiler diet did not alter the carcass characteristics and meat quality parameters except meat cholesterol content in broilers.

Epidemiology of infective endocarditis in Chennai, South India.

BACKGROUND: Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection of the endocardial surface of the heart. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, mortality rates remain high. Data on the prevalence, epidemiology and etiology of IE from India are sparse. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical, laboratory, microbiological, and echocardiographic characteristics of IE patients in Chennai, south India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients were classified based on modified Duke criteria. Details of the clinical profile of the patients and laboratory data were recorded. Blood cultures were performed to establish the etiology. RESULTS: Ninety six percent of patients had native valve endocarditis. Mitral valve was the most commonly affected valve. CONCLUSION: Rheumatic heart disease was the most common predisposing factor and fever was the most common clinical feature. Viridans group streptococci accounted of the culture positive cases.